State House drops penalty on schools that ducked right to work

Apr. 23, 2013

Protesters march towards the steps of the state Capitol in Lansing to protest the signing of the right-to-work bill by Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday, Dec 11, 2012. Snyder is supposed to sign the bill today or tomorrow. / Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Controversial language that would have punished public school districts, universities, community colleges and local units of government that approved union contracts before the right-to-work law went into effect was dropped by the state House of Representatives as it began debating the budgets for schools and the rest of government Tuesday.

“Despite all of the attention the issue received in the press, very few public bodies actually went through with rumored plans to sacrifice the taxpayers’ well-being for the benefit of select special-interest groups,” said state Rep. Joe Haveman, R-Holland. “The vast majority of Michigan's local governments, schools and colleges and universities chose instead to do their job and responsibly negotiate contracts that benefit everyone.”

The penalty language would have hit Wayne State University and the University of Michigan especially hard, cutting 15% of the state’s contribution to their budgets, costing U-M $47.1 million and WSU $27 million. Several dozen public school districts, at least two community colleges and at least one municipality, Washtenaw County, approved contracts before right-to-work went into effect March 28. They could have lost technology grants, incentives or planned budget increases if the language stayed in the budget.

Any contract in place before right-to-work legislation became law would not have been affected by the new law until the contract expired. U-M and WSU, for example, negotiated and approved contracts before March 28. Several GOP House members saw the move as an attempt to circumvent the right-to-work law, prompting the proposed penalty.

“We are very pleased with the news,” WSU spokesman Matt Lockwood said. “It allows us to keep our focus and resources dedicated to the success of our students.”

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At the Warren Consolidated Schools district, which also approved a contract before the right-to-work law, officials said they weren’t sure what they might have lost if the language had survived.

Bob Freehan, spokesman for the district, said there was never an attempt to circumvent the law. The contract, he said, will save the district millions of dollars.

“The reality was that the contract we negotiated was one we felt was in the best interests of the district,” he said.

The Detroit Public Schools district approved a contract, without raises, for its 4,000 members a day before the right-to-work legislation became law.

Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson said removing the penalties saved the state a bunch of lawsuits.

“It (the bill) would’ve penalized schools and educational institutions for exercising a constitutional right, and exercising that right before a new law took effect,” he said. “The state would’ve really put itself in harm’s way in terms of sanctions and lawsuits.”

The right-to-work law was passed in the final days of the lame-duck legislative session in December without committee hearings or public input. The bills prompted more than 10,000 people to descend on the Capitol to protest the bills, which make it illegal to require financial contributions to a union as a condition of employment.

Although Republicans on the House Appropriations committee approved the contract penalty language, the Senate did not include it in their versions of the budget bills, and Gov. Rick Snyder said he didn’t support the penalties.

Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said a review of the union contracts approved before right-to-work legislation became law showed that the majority were done as a normal course of business for the schools, colleges and municipalities.

“Had there been widespread excess, we would be debating the budget differently today,” he said.

House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said he was grateful that the GOP abandoned its ill-conceived notion of punishment.

“They probably realized it’s not constructive or productive to continue to dredge up this right-to-work issue,” he said.